Dead Days

Chapter 24

I cut the rope and laid the man in the bed and covered his body. I walked out of the room and a wave of nausea instantly rolled over me. I put a hand on the wall to steady myself, the Russians laughter still echoing deep within my head.

     I walk down the stairs, suppressing the urge to vomit what little contents my stomach actually holds. I walk into the living room and Cassie is still playing with the Husky. When she hears me step into the room she turns around. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost," she says, brushing dog hair from her face.

     "I found out what was making the noise upstairs." I say, my vision spinning, even mentioning what I had found made me nauseous. "A man was hung." I left out the part about me being next, Cassie was already worried enough.

"Well?" She asked.

"Well, what?"

"What did you do with him?"

"I laid him in the bed and covered him up. Let's just sleep downstairs." I tell her, walking to the chair and sitting down. Every muscle in my body ached.

"What should we name him?" Cassie says, looking from me to the dog. She patted its head and it panted, tired from playing with Cassie.

"Who said we're taking it with us?" I asked, closing my eyes and leaning my head back.

"Please, Jack, we can't just leave it here." I open my eyes and look at her, she and the dog are both giving puppy eyes.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I say, a sigh following the question.

She looks under and comes up, "a boy."

I look at the dog for while, it stares back at me, in my eyes. In that moment something happened, something that has never happened before. It was as if the dog and I had connected on a mental level. The warrior in my bent down on one knee, respecting the power of the animal.

I swear to god the dog smiled at me, but in that instance I knew what to name him. "Wolf." I said.

The dog sat, almost as if he knew that this was his new name, his eyes flickered in the dying light.

"I guess that's his name," Cassie said, standing and walking to the couch. Wolf walked up to me and laid his chin on my knee.

    I gave him a pet and he curled up at my feet.

     "He likes you too, by the looks of it." Cassie said, laying her head on the arm of the couch. "What's for food, in starving here?"

     "That is a good question," I say, standing and walking to the kitchen to investigate the cabinets. Wolf and Cassie follow closely behind.

After a quick search I turn up some potted meat and two cans of baked beans. "It's not going to be a five star meal, but it's definitely going to give us the energy we need."

"I hate Spam." Cassie says, a grimace plastered on her face.

"If you're hungry enough, you'll eat anything, trust me." I say, thinking back to when I was in Iraq eating cooked bugs while on a stake-out mission.

Cassie clears the table while I heat up the beans and meat. It's surprising that this place still has power.

     "Bon appetite, mademoiselle," I say, putting on my best French accent while serving her a plate of what looked like dog food. I even made Wolf a plate.

     We ate at the table like a small family. Well, Cassie and I did, Wolf sat between our chairs. We talked about what would happen after Charleston, where we would go, and how we would live.